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July 14 Time for a ChangeHey everyone, I feel like I need a change of scenery and am now going to be blogging here: http://sean80space.blogspot.com/. If any of you have a blog there, let me know and I'll be sure to check it out. Hopefully you'll still be able to make some time for little ol' me and give my new spot a look. Talk to you all soon, Sean July 13 Ummm...yeahI know I've said this before and I'm sure I'll say it again, but I really need to stop putting off blog entries for months at a time. I guess time for the quick update as to what's been going on since January: Still working at the new job and loving it. Wow...never thought I would say that about a job but I really do work with some great people. I've been going to see tons of movies as usual. You can see what I've been watching in the theatres in this thread at Tehbias.com. Those guys are always busting my balls about how many movies I see and asked me to keep track. So I obliged them and really, I'm having fun with it. I have been playing some games but nothing until GTAIV was really causing me to lose time in my life. I did play God of War: Chains of Olympus on the PSP and I loved it. It was f'n awesome and I couldn't believe it was a PSP game at times. The controls were so good I couldn't believe it. I'm a huge GOW fan and this definitely lived up to the series awesomeness. I have played the storyline of GTA IV from start to finish. It was the first time I have ever done that and I loved it. This game is definitely worthy of the accolades it has received. Everything about it is just incredible...from the writing to the controls to the action packed missions to everything. I still can't believe they fit everything onto one DVD disc. As for other games I've been playing: I rented and liked but not loved Quake Wars. I did really enjoy my rental of Battlefield: Bad Company and will pick it up once the budget allows. I also rented and finished Lego Indiana Jones and really enjoyed it as well. Now though I finally got my Unreal Tournament III for the 360 and can't wait to put some time into it. I've always liked the Unreal games and so far this one is incredible. The exclusive Gears of War 2 footage on the disc is incredible and just has me drooling for that game. I guess now is the time for the bad news. My father passed away on April 30 from a heart attack at the age of 61. Things have obviously been really weird since then for me and my family. It still doesn't feel completely real that he is gone and I do miss him terribly. Maybe it hasn't totally sunk in yet because I've been so busy looking after my mom and my younger brothers that I don't think I've given myself the time I need. Things are starting to get better but will never been the same again. R.I.P. Dad. Sorry for the depressing finish to the post. I guess there's no real way to go about telling people about it. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some Unreal Tournament III to play. Hope everyone out there is having a safe and enjoyable summer. :) January 06 Sean's Movie Reviews are Back!!!It's been quite a while since I've done a movie review on here, part of the reason for that of course had been my absence from doing any posts at all. Despite not doing the reviews, I of course kept going to the theatre and saw over 60 movies last year plus a few repeat viewings. I saw Transformers four time. I would have stopped at three but they had to go and bring it back on the IMAX.
So this year I'm going to do something a little different. I'm going to have a list on the righthand side of the page right under my Xbox info of all the movies I've seen this year with a rating out of 5 and the date of the initial review. So on with the first one for 2008:
There Will be Blood
This was quite the movie. I think it's my favourite from P. T. Anderson. While I enjoyed Boogie Nights, Magnolia and Punch Drunk Love, they didn't grab me quite the same way as they did for a lot of other people. Day-Lewis was fantastic as was to be expected but not quite as good as he was in Gangs of New York. Paul Dano has come a long way from The Girl Next Door and improved on the good work he did in Little Miss Sunshine. Everyone else from Ciaran Hinds to the kid who plays his son were very good as well. I'm sure there will be some acting Oscar nominations.
The story has a very Howard Hughes/Citizen Kane feel to it with Daniel Plainview's (Day-Lewis) slow descent in paranoia and becoming a recluse as he becomes more successful over the years. The writing was really good, although I'd say a good portion of the first 10-15 minutes is dialog free. The score by Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood was different, but I really dug it. There were also some great visuals as well. That being said, it wasn't perfect either. The movie takes place over a period of 29 years and yet Day-Lewis doesn't look like he's aged a day apart from his movements and same goes for Dano. I know that's just nitpicking but it's small details like this that I notice sometimes. It also runs a but longer than it needs to I thought at 2:40. As much as I liked this, it doesn't top No Country for Old Men for me personally. Rating: 4.5/5 December 30 My Tops of the Year!!It's hard to believe that the year is almost over already. A lot has happened this year, both good and bad, but I have very little in the way of regrets and that's the most important thing. I hope everyone else out there had a great year as well. :)
Now on to the main topic of this posting, my top choices for a variety of items for the year:
Games:
For me, my favourite game this year has been Call of Duty 4. No first person shooter has seemed this "complete" to me. Not only is the online some of the most fun I've ever had, but the single player is utterly fucking fantastic. The single player has incredible action and a really good story as well. The scene with the bomb 1/2 way through the game just blew me away and totallly caught me of guard. It had drama to it that you rarely see in most FPSes. Not only that, but the controls are incredible as well. Infinity Ward definitely followed up Call of Duty 2 with one kick ass game.
I also think the online is far superior to Halo 3. While I realize H3 gives you more options in terms of game modes, I just think the actual game play in COD4 is way better and I prefer the faster pace of COD4. Plus, how addictive are those challenges and the ranking up? I love it.
My runner-up for game of the year is God of War II. It was better than the original in every way, and I thought that would be hard to do. It was a game that is beyond epic and I think no. 3 will make me get a PS3 again. Hell, I asked for a PSP for Christmas just so I could play Chains of Olympus when it's released.
Movies:
Here are my top 10 movies for the year in alphabetical order:
300
3:10 to Yuma The Bourne Ultimatum Eastern Promises Grindhouse (theatrical release) No Country for Old Men Simpsons Movie Sweeney Todd Transformers Zodiac My absolute top movie for the year though is No Country for Old Men. I'm a huge Coens Brother fan and this movie had some of the best acting and writing I've seen all year. Javier Barden is downright scary in his role as the assassin. The runner-up is Sweeney Todd. I'm a sucker for anything from Tim Burton, especially if Depp is involved and this is probably their best collaboration since Edward Scissorhands. There are lots of other movies I loved this year, such as Knocked Up, Saw IV and Superbad, but I can't list them all. :)
TV Shows:
While Heroes was my top show last season, this season is definitely not. My top show is Chuck. I love the humour on the show and can certainly relate to some of the "geeky" behaviour on it as well. Plus, that chick who plays Sarah is downright smoking HOT.
My runner-up show is Supernatural. The guys have great chemistry between eachother and I love the urban myths they cover. Also the storyline of the Winchester family is very interesting as well. I also think the show has great writing as well.
So those are my tops of the year in a few categories. I'm sure I could think of some more but I don't want this thing to get too long.
On a closing note though I have one thing I'd like to mention - I think you all need to go and watch Stardust right NOW!!! I got the DVD for my b-day last week and it is one amazing movie. It's a great fantasy story full of humour, great action and adventure and heart. I'm a big fan of Neil Gaiman and I can't wait to check out the book for this movie.
I hope you all have a very Happy New Year and best of wishes for 2008 to all of you. November 25 Look's who back...again...lolOk I know it's been a long time since I've done a post and I know that one was after a long break too. I guess I've just been busy with stuff in my life and all the games that have been coming out over the past few months.
First things first I guess, I'll cover what's been going on with me personally since I last posted. As of the end of August, I became single again. She got a job offer in Florida and decided to take it. I won't go into all the details around it but everything that went down really sucked but I'm not bitter about it. Life is too short to dwell on things like that. However, the end of August was also the beginning of ICandee and Ruffneck's life together. It was a very beautiful ceremony and an awesome weekend with the gang from Tehbias. I also got to meet Ruffneck's parents who are two of the nicest people and I also got meet some of their friends as well. It was exactly the kind of weekend I needed.
One other big change for me personally is I finally sucked it up and decided to switch jobs. I started doing interviews in the summer and I finally got a new job in September. It was a really hard thing to do leaving where I was for 6 years but I realized that for me to advance my career I had to leave a 2 lawyer firm and go somewhere bigger. So now I'm working at the 3rd largest firm in Canada in a new area of law and I couldn't be happier.
So other than that I've just been doing my usual thing...playing lots of games (OMG...COD4 is the BEST!!!) and watching lots of movies with some other stuff thrown in. Hope you're all doing well and I will definitely try to post again soon and visit all your spaces to see what's been going on.
Oh yeah...how bad are the Leafs this year? You would think they were all rookies. It's a little depressing..lol. At least the Packers are kicking ass this year. Also, as a Bills fan, I know I should hate the Patriots but they are just too much fun to watch. I do hope they win it all. And, how funny would it be if the Dolphins had the only perfect winning and losing seasons?
August 13 Ebay sellers beware!!!Time for my Ebay horror story...well not too horrible as it could have been a lot worse. So the time has come where I've had to sell my PS3 for some personal reasons. I can hear Torment now saying..."told ya not to get it". :) So I decided to list it on Ebay as both an auction and with a Buy it Now price. I listed it last Wednesday and was very happy to see that someone chose the Buy it Now option that very same day. I sent out my invoice and went to bed happy. When I woke up the next morning, I had an e-mail from Ebay telling me that the person who bought had his account cancelled as they couldn't confirm his information. So I relisted it as the same thing on Thursday. Thursday evening, the exact same frigging thing happened and I got yet another e-mail from Ebay telling me not to follow through on the sale. I was starting to get a little annoyed, so I relisted the item without the Buy It Now price thinking this would cut down on this problem. While the third listing was waiting to sell I heard from both original buyers and they both wanted me to send the PS3 to Nigeria because they were out of the country and it was their kid or niece or someone’s birthday and they would pay me as soon as they got back into the US. One of them even offered me $2,100US for it. The other one sent me an e-mail saying that once I sent the tracking number to some e-mail address, I would get my Paypal payment. They tried to make this e-mail look all nice and official. I couldn’t believe it. Obviously I wasn’t sending it anywhere without payment first and I also put in the item description that I would only ship to US or Canada. So yesterday the third auction ended and the PS3 sold for a decent price...not as much as I had hoped but not too bad. So I sent out the invoice and the person who won sent me an e-mail asking me to sent it to Africa because he was in New Zealand and it was his son’s birthday who was in Africa. I told him no dice and that I was only willing to ship within US or Canada. He begged me to send it but I told him no dice as this looked too suspicious to me. So I just sold it to the next highest bidder. The funny part is that if it wasn’t for the guy from Africa, I would never have gotten as high a selling price. This is the first and only time I have had this kind of
problem selling something on Ebay but then again I usually just sell comics and
the like on there. Just please use this
as a tale of caution when selling something on Ebay. I put as many restrictions on the item as I
could (i.e. no one could bid or buy with a rating of -1 or lower) but you can
only do so much.Other than that, things are good for me. I'm still with Carlie and she is still amazing although she's been away for the last couple weeks and won't be back until this weekend but I'm surviving and I can't wait to see her when she gets back obviously. :) Hope you are all having a great summer and I'll see you on Live soon. July 09 Hmmm...what to talk about....oh I know!!!!Not much new for me on the gaming front. I did rent The Darkness last week and I'm really enjoying it so far. The graphics look great, although sometimes the movement on the characters' mouths is a little off as in they don't move at all. The voice acting is superb though and the writing so far is really cool. I've tried a bit of multiplier with Ruffneck and it's kinda cool being able to quickly transform from human to darkling. The darklings are not very strong but you can run up the walls and hide on the ceilings with them and then wait for the right moment to pounce on your enemies like a lawyer on a car accident. I'm going to try and get as much of it finished as I can before I take my rental back. I also rented Shadowrun a couple weeks ago. It is a really fun and entertaining game. I would have picked it up except for the fact I don't see myself paying $70.00CDN for what is essentially an online only game. Of course my gaming time has been cut down lately and it is totally for the better. I have a new girl in my life (Carlie). She's totally awesome...she's cute, smart, funny and really nice. She even doesn't mind my gaming (she likes games too) and geeky ways. So far things are going great with her and I couldn't be happier.  I hope everyone is having a safe and enjoyable summer so far. July 03 Robots, Rats and John McClane (review time)Last night I finally got to see what has to be my most anticipated movie of the summer....TRANSFORMERS!!! This movie completely blew my socks off. The acting was much better than I expected, especially Shia LaBoeuf as the main hero. The special f/x was much like those you've never seen. Seeing the Transformers onscreen and alive for the first time was much the same as seeing the dinosaurs from Jurassic Park for the first time. The Transformers look real and alive. They did not look green/blue screened and looked like they were right there with the actors (which they were for part of it since they used animatronics). If this movie doesn't win the Oscar for f/x, I'll be very, very surprised and shocked. Everyone needs to go see this right away...as in RIGHT NOW!!!! I also caught Ratatouille and Live Free or Die Hard over the weekend. Both of them were very good and did not disappoint. Ratatouille lived up to the fine reputation Pixar has created for themselves. It really is worth seeing in the theatres so that you can see the unbelievable animation in all its glory. It is also great for kids because there are no real scary moments and all the kids in the theatre when I saw it really seemed to enjoy themselves. Live Free or Die Hard was a great action movie and I loved it. Bruce Willis hasn't lost a step as McClane. The action was way over the top but that was to be expected. Definitely worth seeing in the theatre as well. June 13 Quick Movie ReviewsIt's been awhile again since I posted last and I apologize for that. Today I just thought I would do some quicky reviews for movies I've seen over the last month or so in the theatre. There are a whole bunch on DVD too, but that would be too many to list. Now on with the reviews: Shrek the Third Not as good as the first two but still very funny and entertaining. Definitely a better part 3 than Spider-Man. Justin Timberlake was actually pretty good as Artie and Eric Idle was good as Merlin. Everyone else was their usual great selves, although Eddie Murphy's donkey character is getting a bit old. The animation was even better than the second one and I guess that is one of the main draws to the movie. I still love their use of modern pop culture in the middle ages setting. Definitely something you can take your kids to. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End While this was an enjoyable movie, it still runs into threequel-itis and was a bit of a mess. I think he running time was a bit long and there were quite a few points that I thought were pretty lame. The F/X were fantastic though and definitely better than Spidey 3. I'm really hoping this is the last we see of Orlando Bloom in any movie ever but I fear that won't happen. Chow-Yun Fat was quite good though as Sao Fen and Keith Richards was good in his part as well. I hate to say it though but I do think that the character of Jack Sparrow may be getting a little played out. If you stay to the end of the credits, there is a little added scene but it really isn't worth staying for. Knocked Up This was one funny movie. I don't know if I liked it quite as much as 40 Year Old Virgin but it was very entertaining. Everybody in it was awesome, including lots of people with small roles that you would recognize from other things. Everyone should check this one out. Hostel Part II In some ways I liked this one better than the first one. You got to see a lot more from the killer's point of view and in some cases that was interesting. It was just about as violent as the first one and it's still not for the weak of stomach. It even had the dude who played Victor Krum in the last Harry Potter movie in it. Ocean's Thirteen While not as good or fun as the first one, it's miles above the second one. It had a lot of fun moments and was quite enjoyable as long as you can ignore how implausible it is. The inclusion of Al Pacino was a nice touch. As much as I hate to say this, you do need to see the second one to understand one part of it. Also, Ellen Barkin is still way hot. Holy crap I've seen a lot of movies. Hopefully my comments, while brief, will help in your moving viewing decisions. Between that and the Halo 3 beta, which I loved, I guess I haven't had a lot of time to post. Hopefully with in the next few days I can make the rounds and see what everyone is up to. Hope everyone is enjoying their summer (if they live in this area of the world) so far. May 14 Addicted to Crackdown Once MoreAs most of you know by now, Crackdown received two batches of DLC goodness last Thursday. One was free and one was premium that cost 800 points. They also released an update for the game. The new DLC is so vast and awesome that I have become quite addicted to the game again. My favourite mode being Keys to the City. In this mode, you start the game afresh but there is no saving and there are no achievements. Basically you get a cheat menu called Keys to the City where you can do everything from turn your skills up to the maximum right away, you can spawn a car anywhere you are and my favourite being the ability to spawn explosive barrels at the touch of a button. I played a lot of co-op this weekend with my friend Ruffneck and we had a blast just setting up barrels and seeing just how big of an explosion we could make. The other DLC includes new game types, such as Rocket Tag, and new vehicles and weapons. My favourite new weapon is the harpoon gun. I know this won't help my side in the violence in video games argument but I love harpooning people to my car and then driving around in it. You can even get an achievement for harpooning 5 people to one car. The most important of the title updates in my opinion is the increased volume of the orb notification noise. I found my last 2 agility orbs this weekend and now have all 500 of them. I am missing about 70 of the hidden orbs and plan on finding them this week if possible. I have also noticed that it is a lot easier to get into an online game. Other companies should take note as this is how DLC should be done. I also rented Command and Conquer 3 for the 360 this weekend. Played a couple online matches and just absolutely loved it. I'll post my thoughts on it soon after I have a chance to play some more. The demo for Area 51: Blacksite also was released last week. It's a short demo but it looks and plays very nicely. It runs on the Unreal 3 engine, so good graphics are pretty much expected I suppose. If the rest of the game holds up as well as this demo promises, I'll be picking it up for sure. Lastly, I, like everyone else, await the Halo 3 beta being released this week. Although I know some people, like Superghost, have been fortunate to play it. If you head over to his site, you can read his initial thoughts on it and it sounds promising. May 05 Spider-Man 3My friends, I come to you today with a heavy heart. I am about to do a review for a movie that I never thought I would have to write. I saw Spider-Man 3 last night and let's just say it was not a pleasant experience. I have tried to cover any spoilers for those that don't want to see them yet.
The Good: Topher Grace was really good as Eddie Brock and the small screen time he had for Venom. He really seemed to be enjoying himself in the role. Thomas Haden Church was really good as Sandman and looked the part. Venom was done really well and I'm still glad they didn't make him much bigger than Spider-Man. Bryce Dallas Howard is hot as a blonde. The action scenes were really cool, aside form the CGI which I'll touch on in a moment. Bruce Campbell was fantastic in his usual cameo. The Bad: Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst really didn't seem to enthusiastic to me about being in the movie. The dancing, especially the Saturday Night Fever scene, was retarded and rather pointless to me. I'm not so sure Kirsten Dunst was actually singing in the movie but it wasn't very good (not overly horrible either). Most of the CGI to me really seemed to be a step down from Spidey 2. Considering the money they spent on this movie, I expected better. The Sandman especially reminded me too much of the Mummy but I guess there's only so much they can do with sand. It really did feel like they were trying to rush everything into one movie. If they had just the Sandman and Harry in this one, it would have been ok but adding in Venom just made things too complicated. I really didn't like that they still had the Sandman as Uncle Ben's killer. That just changes way too much for me. Harry's costume as the new Goblin was pretty stupid to me and I wasn't too keen on the snowboard glider. I don't understand why Spidey went all Emo once he got the black suit, as seen in the commercials but expanded obviously in the movie. He literally pulled his hair over his face like an emo once he got it on. It's like Jared Leto was playing the role for 1/2 the movie. There were quite a few things in the movie that made me laugh but shouldn't have. It was like seeing the giant poodle in Hulk all over again for me. The last thing I'll touch on so that they this doesn't get overly long with my complaints is that Gwen Stacy was completely pointless in this movie. They could have given her character any name and it would have been the same result but I guess they were just reall desperate to get Gwen involved somehow. Conclusion: As a movie in general, this isn't a terrible movie. It's also still a lot better than most comic book movies. *cough* Daredevil *cough* However after Spider-Man 2 I expected much better. This was almost like the drop off in quality from Empire Strikes Back to Return of the Jedi for me. Maybe if they bring out an extended version of DVD, it'll play out better. I'm really starting to think the critics may be right and Raimi and Co. should take a break from the franchise. I'm wondering if maybe Raimi received a lot of interference from Marvel (they did force him to include Venom) and the studio on this one. April 20 Whimper at the MoonAs anyone who owns a copy of Guitar Hero II knows, new song packs containing songs from the first Guitar Hero were released last week on the Marketplace. I decided that despite the higher than expected price, I would pick up packs 1 and 3. Pack 2 didn't really have anything in that I was dying to play again. Pack 1 is definitely the best one I feel as it contains Bark at the Moon and Ace of Spades, two songs I love. Well I started to play Bark at the Moon on easy and let me tell you it was a sad display. I remember having some trouble with it in the original game but I don't remember ever having this much trouble. I've actually found that I've had more trouble with most songs on the 360 than I ever did on the PS2 and that could be that I just haven't fully adjusted to the responsiveness of the new controller. However I am improving. My favourite songs to play are still Freebird (all glorious 9 minutes of it) and Carry On Now Wayward Son. How about the rest of you....what songs do you like to play? On top of that, I also picked up the new Rainbow Six: Vegas content that came out this week. The new maps are really nice, but I don't really get all that impressed when they just redo a couple old ones and try to make a big deal about it. I haven't tried the new game modes but I hope to do so over the weekend. April 09 Oops...it's been awhile!!Wow...have I been slacking on posting or what? I guess I've just been way too busy playing all the awesome games that have come out recently. Games such as God of War II, GRAW 2 and Guitar Hero II...hmmm...I think there may be a trend there. God of War II was an unbelievably awesome game. I finished it on medium on April 1 and let me tell you that it was not an easy thing to do. Thankfully 1up.com has a great walk through that I will admit to using from time to time. It kept me from throwing my controller through the TV screen in frustration. The action sequences, the music, just the sheer scale of this game are second to none. It is probably the closest you could ever come to playing a game version of 300. GRAW 2 was a lot of fun as well although the single player was a little short. I finished it last night and it is the first every Ghost Recon game I have played the single player to completion in. It was a great game though. It had some very cool hollywood-like action moments. The scenes where you have to shoot the mounted gun from the helicopter were incredible. Guitar Hero II is one of the rare times I would buy a game for another system after I already owned it on a previous one. I had to get the 360 version since it included new songs, achievements and downloadable content. I just need to get myself a second guitar now. I'm not liking the shape of the new guitar as much as the PS2's, but it is still very nice. Other than those awesome games, I've been seeing movies as usual. This weekend I went to see Grindhouse and it was unbelievable cool. It definitely lived up to the hype. The fake trailers were pretty amazing as well. They were all for different types of horror movies but Rob Zombie's Werewolf Women of the SS was definitely the most fun of them. Between the two main movies, I think I may have enjoyed Planet Terror a little more. It was definitely a funner movie; however, Tarantino's was very cool as well. It had some car chases and crashes that haven't really been seen since the movies from the 70s that it is based on. I guess that's it for now. I hope everyone had a great weekend and I'll see you all again soon. March 24 Final Spider-Man 3 trailer and Transformers NewsThe new trailer is online in 480p and 720p goodness. OMG!! OMG!! OMG!! OMG!! OMG!! OMG!! OMG!! OMG!! OMG!! OMG!! OMG!! OMG!! OMG!! OMG!! OMG!! OMG!! OMG!! OMG!! OMG!! OMG!! OMG!! OMG!! OMG!! OMG!! OMG!! OMG!! OMG!! OMG!! OMG!! OMG!! OMG!! OMG!! OMG!! OMG!!
In other movie news, Hugo Weaving looks to be doing the voice of Megatron in the Transformers movie. While Frank Whelker would have been cool as he did the voice in the cartoon, Weaving will still do a fantastic job. March 21 Let Loose the Gods of War and the Ghosts too!!!Holy crap it's been a while since my last post. I guess I've just been having too much fun with all the new games coming out and other stuff. The two games taking up the most of my gaming time right now are Worms, God of War II and GRAW 2. GRAW 2 is just amazing and is more fun online than the first one. I'm also actually playing through the single player this time as well. The rest of my online gaming seems to be primarily spent on playing Worms. We've had a lot of great online battles in that game and will be playing the crap out of it for the foreseeable future. It truly is this year's Uno for me. God of War II though is a completely different animal. It is by far one of the most epic games I have ever played and I'm maybe 1/3 of the way through it. This game is just so huge on scale that it's unbelievable. Plus the fact that it is a Playstation 2 game makes me quiver with anticipation of what they might do on the PS3. Everyone should pick this game up if they can. Penny Arcade did a comic on it last week that can be found here and it is so on point it's not even funny. The only other big news is that Devil May Cry 4 is no longer a Sony exclusive as it will be hitting the 360 on the same day as the PS3. Big loss for Sony but not a huge surprise. I doubt we'll see as many 3rd party exclusive this time around as we did before. Last but not least, in non gaming news, I saw 300 two weekends ago and I can sum it up in three words: AWESOME!! OUTSTANDING!!! UNBELIEVABLE!!!. It really is quite the movie and very faithful to the book. March 08 Worms are on the LooseAs you know from my last post, Worms came out on the Marketplace yesterday. I, of course, downloaded it right away last night and spent about 3 hours or so playing it. I absolutely love it. I think they've done a great job with it and definitely will be spending many hours with it. I think this is 2007's Uno. In other gaming news (at least one my end), I had a chance to check our SSX Blur for the Wii earlier this week and here are some initial impressions: I've always been a big fan of snowboarding games ever since Coolboarders on the PS1 and the SSX games ever since the first one on the PS2. So I was really excited to try this one. I had read some decent reviews for it and my Blockbuster actually had some copies in on Friday to rent. After running through some of the game modes this weekend, and the usual ones are there, my first impressions are that this is a very fun game and definitely something different given the use of the Wiimote and Nunchuk. I’m also digging the art style of the game too. The controls do take quite a bit of getting used to though. You control your boarder with the Nunchuk. You use the joystick for quick turns and then tilt the Nunchuk left and right to do big carves. When grinding rails, you also tilt the Nunchuk left and right to keep your balance. Grinding has never been something I've been particularly good at in these games, but this control method made it rather doable for me. To make your snowboarder jump, you tilt the Nunchuk forward. If you hold down the A button first and release it at the same time you get bigger air. To do flips you tilt the Wiimote up and down. To do spins you turn it left and right. You do grabs with the Z button. The Z button is also your boost button depending on your cool factor which is increased by the tricks you do and how successful you are with them. If your cool factor is at "Uber" while in the air, you will be prompted to draw an image with the Wiimote to perform the “Uber” trick. Tricks in this game are definitely not easy to pull off at first but I am starting to get the hang of it. To be honest, they haven't been that much different than other snowboarding games. I haven't had a chance to try out the career mode yet. I've done everything on Quick Play so far. Overall, I'm really enjoying this game and would definitely pick it up at a discounted price. I don't think I would get enough out of it though at full price, especially after already paying to rent it. Last but not least, as everyone knows GRAW 2 came out this week. A lot of people I know seem to be torn on whether to buy it or not. I will be and I am definitely looking forward to playing it. Maybe this time around I'll finally give the single player a run through. March 02 Worms Invade the MarketplaceEverybody's favourite invertebrates are finally coming to the Xbox 360. Team 17's Worms HD will finally be landing on the Live Marketplace this coming Wednesday, March 7, 2007 for 800 MS points. The game will feature 4 player battles over Live and of course single player modes as well. Unlike the last few console versions of the game, Worms HD will be in classic 2D just like I remember it. I personally cannot wait for this and will be picking it up on Wednesday as soon as I can. You can read more about it here. February 28 What's New....First I'll quickly touch on the Oscars. All in all I'm pretty happy with their selections. I was very happy to see Pan's Labyrinth win a few awards and then to see Alan Arkin pull off the upset for Best Supporting Actor for Little Miss Sunshine. If you have not seen this movie, I highly recommend that you do. The cast is superb and the writing is great a swell. Plus it has Steve Carell in it. How can you go wrong with that?
February 23 Oscar Night 2007I just realized that the Oscars are only two days away and I haven't posted my predictions here yet. I know a lot of people think the Oscars are stupid and not important, and I can agree with that to a point, but I still watch them every year given my love of movies. I have actually managed to see quite a few of the nominated movies, and there are still some I haven't seen that I would like to. Maybe I can squeeze one more in before Sunday night. So without further ado, here my predictions: Updated - Feb 25/07 at 6:40 p.m. February 19 What's Going On....So far, I'm off to a pretty good start with my games finished list for 2007. As of yesterday, I've already finished the following games this year: Resistance: Fall of Man Call of Duty 3 (360) Gears of War Rainbow Six: Vegas (360) Tomb Raider: Legends (360) That's not too shabby if I do say so myself considering how I didn't have my 360 for the first 1/2 of January. Hopefully I can keep that list going. Right now I'm working on Lost Planet and I'm on level 10 of 11 (I think I heard it was 11). So far I'm really liking it but man some of it is rather tough and frustrating. I want to get Lost Planet finished so I can focus all of my attention into Crackdown. I actually managed to buy myself a copy of it yesterday at the local Sam's Club despite the nice bright orange sticker across the top of it that reads "DO NOT SELL BEFORE 2.20.07". I guess if they had put the game right side up in the plastic security sleeves (are those things retarded or what?) they may have noticed that but then again, I doubt they would have cared. I played through some Crackdown yesterday for about a 1/2 hour so and I did notice that levelling up is slower than it was in the demo but not a lot slower. I didn't want to play too much as I'm really looking forward to the co-op. Quick question though....am I the only person who bought this and doesn't really care about the Halo 3 beta invitation? I'm willing to bet I am. However, I think it's great that it's in there and I'm looking forward to playing that. I hope it allows private matches. I guess that's all for now. Stayed tuned later this week as I will be posting my Oscar predictions, most of which I am sure will be wrong. :) |
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